The New York Times bestselling author of A Certain Age transports readers to sunny Florida in this lush and enthralling historical novel—an enchanting blend of love, suspense, betrayal, and redemption set among the rumrunners and scoundrels of Prohibition-era Cocoa Beach.

Burdened by a dark family secret, Virginia Fortescue flees her oppressive home in New York City for the battlefields of World War I France. While an ambulance driver for the Red Cross, she meets a charismatic British army surgeon whose persistent charm opens her heart to the possibility of love. As the war rages, Virginia falls into a passionate affair with the dashing Captain Simon Fitzwilliam, only to discover that his past has its own dark secrets—secrets that will damage their eventual marriage and propel her back across the Atlantic to the sister and father she left behind.

Five years later, in the early days of Prohibition, the newly widowed Virginia Fitzwilliam arrives in the tropical boomtown of Cocoa Beach, Florida, to settle her husband’s estate. Despite the evidence, Virginia does not believe Simon perished in the fire that destroyed the seaside home he built for her and their young daughter. Separated from her husband since the early days of their marriage, the headstrong Virginia plans to uncover the truth, for the sake of the daughter Simon never met.

Simon’s brother and sister welcome her with open arms and introduce her to a dazzling new world of citrus groves, white beaches, bootleggers, and Prohibition agents. But Virginia senses a predatory presence lurking beneath the irresistible, hedonistic surface of this coastal oasis. The more she learns about Simon and his mysterious business interests, the more she fears that the dangers that surrounded Simon now threaten her and their daughter’s life as well.

While volunteering as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross, Virginia Fortescue meets Simon Fitzwilliam, a Captain in the British Army Medical Corps, in France. Despite her own better judgment, Virginia finds herself falling for the charming Simon, and the love the two share for each other soon leads to a whirlwind marriage. But the secrets Simon keeps from his new wife about his past soon drive a wedge between them, prompting Virginia to return home to her family in New York.
Five years later upon receiving word that Simon has died in a mysterious house fire at Maitland, the ancestral estate he had been diligently restoring, Virginia, along with her daughter Evelyn, travels to Cocoa, Florida. While Simon’s sister and his twin brother Samuel could not be more welcoming, Virginia senses a dark shadow lingering among the dazzlingly bright sunshine and sweet smell of orange blossoms that surround Maitland. Could it be that there is more to Simon’s mysterious death than Virginia has been led to believe?

Williams has gained a solid reputation with readers for her gracefully written historical fiction, and Cocoa Beach is an excellent example of her ability to flawlessly marry a finely honed plot rich in unexpected twists and turns with a full cadre of richly nuanced characters, who will keep readers engaged from the book’s first page to its stunning conclusion. Readers who enjoy novels with a strong sense of place and time will especially savor William’s latest masterwork as she whisks them from World War I France to misty Cornwall and then onto sun-drenched Florida. As an added bonus, fans of classic gothic romances by authors such as Daphne Du Maurier and Mary Stewart will especially appreciate the clever manner in which Williams remixes and re-masters many of the ingredients – including the ancestral estate, the heroine torn between the love of two men, and a romantic plot generously seasoned with intrigue and secrets - of these novels by transporting the story to Prohibition-era Florida.